Mark Cooper graduated with a B.Sc. geology degree from Imperial College, London in 1974 and with a Ph.D. from Bristol University in 1977. He taught geology at University College Cork prior to joining BP in 1985 to work on structurally complex basins based in London. Mark moved to BP Canada, Calgary in 1988 where he worked on exploration in the foothills including the successful Sukunka-Bullmoose gas play in NE British Columbia. Mark also worked for BP in Colombia on the team that drilled the discovery wells on the Cupiagua, Volcanera and Florena Fields. In 1994 he joined PanCanadian and worked on the BC foothills, western Newfoundland, Quebec, the Gulf of Mexico, the Scotian Shelf and various international projects. He worked on frontier and international projects in Oman, Qatar, Yemen, Eastern Europe and Greenland after the merger that created EnCana in 2002 managing the Middle East and Global New Ventures groups for EnCana. Mark retired from EnCana as VP Middle East and Global New Ventures at the end of 2007 and now has his own consulting practice specializing in International Exploration and Structural Geology. A significant part of Mark’s consulting practice is teaching professional training courses on the application of structural geology in petroleum exploration. Mark also holds an Honorary Chair in Petroleum Geology at the University of Aberdeen. He has published over 50 papers, co-edited a book on Inversion Tectonics and has served as an advisory editor for the Journal of the Geological Society. He was a co-winner of the CSPG Link Award in 1997, served as an AAPG Distinguished Lecturer for 1999-2000, was a co-winner of the AAPG Matson Award in 2002 and was the recipient of a Distinguished Service Award from AAPG in 2014. Mark has been heavily involved with both the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists and the AAPG serving on committees in both organizations over the last 10 years. In 2016 Mark will be President Elect of the CSPG.